Ben Ceca, assistant director fleet services at Montclair State University, located in Montclair, N.J., started at the maintenance facility in 2013 turning wrenches. Within three months, he took over shop operations and put a preventive maintenance (PM) service plan in place. The fleet, which provides vehicles for campus employees, went from 132 vehicles to nearly 300 vehicles since that time.
The fleet consists of light and some medium duty, including Ford F250s, F350s, F450s, nine cutaway vans, 24 passenger vans, Nissan Frontier pickups, numerous cars, utility vehicles for police interceptors, golf carts, lawn mowers and more. Ceca says the oldest vehicle in the fleet is approximately seven years old. He adds the fleet uses the summer months - when less classes are in session - to catch up on PMs for many of the vehicles if needed.
Montclair State University's fleet maintenance facilities now use a dedicated software telematics program (AT&T Tracker) to monitor the vehicle condition, speed, braking and idling. Ceca says they've cut idling by 30 percent. If a vehicle idles for more than 30 minutes, a supervisor gets an alert. The program also tracks mileage with alerts indicating when a vehicle is due for service. Through tracking, Ceca has confirmed the fleet was spending quite a bit on engine and transmission work.
Montclair State University currently has three full-time technicians and one part-time technician on staff.
Ceca shares more:
Montclair State University Fleet services oversees the maintenance and purchasing of vehicles for a 486-acre campus that serves over 20,000 students. We currently maintain over 300 vehicles. The vehicles in our fleet range from large equipment such as 14-ton front loaders and 40' commuter shuttle buses to smaller equipment like lawn mowers and snow blowers.
Previously, maintenance operations at Montclair State were housed in a small garage on campus that often could not fit the vehicles that were being repaired. Vehicles were often repaired while the technicians were exposed to the elements. Technicians had very few tools, and the tools they had were substandard. Because of this, they had to often improvise when it came to doing necessary repair work. Our fleet services department is now housed in a 6,400 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility.
Prior to becoming the fleet director at MSU, I held various positions in fleet management for major rental houses, and field service technician for construction manufacturers.
In my five years as MSU Fleet services director, I have set up a PM system with safety inspections to ensure the safety of our faculty and student population. Some of our improvements include the purchase of heavy duty portable lifts, IDS diagnostic tools, the implementation of the ShopKey fleet database system and in 2017 we went paperless to be more environmentally friendly.
One of the main challenges I face as a fleet manager is finding qualified technicians who have the skills to service the varied range of vehicles that we possess.
...
If you'd like to share your unique story on how you got into maintenance, and how you updated or improved your company's fleet maintenance processes or procedures, we'd love to hear more. Please send an email to [email protected] with your story.
